Its been 17 years since I achieved CCIE status. Its time to admit that CCIE skills are not a part of my future and its time to let it go.

Where Am I

I have two roles today. First as the Co-Founder/Chief something of a startup. Packet Pushers as a business IS NOT about aiming, launching towards your goal and pushing hard, its more like guiding a very large falling and accelerating rock so it doesn’t hit the edges as it accelerates and gains momentum. It takes a lot of time and energy to do this.

My second and more visible role is podcast host, analyst and writer on networking at Packet Pushers.

The price of CCIE recertification is substantial. I’m guessing a minimum of 200 hours and more likely 400 hours to get back into the books, work through my flash cards and start memorising a bunch of pointless information. The value ten person-weeks of my time is very high.

Is CCIE relevant to Me ?

Hyper-convergence means legacy networking is pretty much over in the etnerprise data centre. SD-WAN means that deep knowledge of legacy protocols isnt’ needed anymore. The SDN platform hides most of the details there and moves your career into proactive design and strategy instead of having good memory and understand on technology details. Hybrid cloud / multi-cloud is the hotness for the next few years. Having lived through Novell Netware, Window NT before getting into networking where i lived through WAN and Data centre security. I did some WiFi and a lot of monitoring before that became pointless.

The only place where active CCIE status matters is resellers. The idea of working for a vendor reseller has little appeal and often do not pay well. Cisco doesn’t seem to care about my loyalty as they offer no benefits or advantages to maintaining my CCIE relationship. And, broadly, end users don’t have much concern about status now as the ability to communicate and be adaptable is equally important as your technical chops.

I’ve talked a lot about cloud and hyperconvergence, and I don’t see any of the CCIE certifications being useful.

Letting Go

I can re-learn what I need. The foundations of the last decade are still there and educational material is widely available. Its very different now from 2001 when training resources & labs were extremely limited.

If I was planning to invest hundreds of hours in training I would be focussed on a career choice that is one step ahead of the market. Right now, I would invest time in a public cloud – AWS/Google/Azure, doesn’t matter which one. Having ‘cloud skills’ would be more valuable than relearning old knowledge that won’t 1) be used in a few years 2) have less commercial value i.e. no extra salary.

My Ego

My ego doesn’t need my status anymore. I’ve proven to myself that I’m good enough and I don’t need anyone else to validate me. In the middle stage of my career with only ten to fifteen more years (if I’m lucky) of working, I can make this choice.

Farewall CCIE program, time to invest in new skills and leave the old behind.

Today I have decided to finally release the flash card deck that I created for myself in order to pass the written portion of the CCIE Routing & Switching v5.1 exam. This deck represents many months and hundreds (if not thousands) of hours of study effort.

I’m regularly asked the question: What privileges or special access does Cisco give to people when they pass the CCIE™exam ?

Short answer: None. Nada. Nothing. Zip. Zero.

Longer Answer:

If you work hard to pass your Cisco CCIE™exam, Cisco will allocate you a number and validate that you are certified. After that, Cisco provides very little support, privileges or access. Today, the CCIE™program is maintained by the wider Cisco Learning team and certified CCIE’s are treated the same as any other certified person. CCIE’s are a minority community in the Cisco Learning environment and get very few resources allocated (because Cisco Learning focuses on numbers not quality).

In the past, Cisco offered accelerated TAC access by inserting TAC cases directly to L3 resources but this was stopped some years ago.

All access to Cisco resources is determined by your employer. Thus, if you work for a Cisco reseller, then you personal access to special resources is determined by your partner status as Gold, Silver or Premium partner.

Cisco partners have access to additional information on products, practical labs, and some limited competitive information.

If you work for a customer, then your access to technical resources is determined by the size of the your account spend, your Cisco account manager, and whether you are purchasing support directly from Cisco or a Third Party. Since most customers purchase their support from Third Parties to reduce costs, many people have no direct access to support from Cisco.

If you can afford to attend Cisco Live, a current CCIE™can get a small discount on sign up. It’s about USD$300 (whoa there!). At each Cisco Live there is a CCIE™appreciation event – basically a building, some cheap food and cheap booze (which I no longer bother to attend).

Shoe on the Other Foot

But let me ask you another question: What does Cisco ask from CCIE’s ?

Cisco Sales Reps are taught to target CCIE’s within customer account. People who are CCIE-certified are expected to be loyal and aligned to Cisco. And many people will be – after all they spent a lot of time and effort to become skilled in Cisco IOS and networking technology. It’s also human nature to prefer to buy what they are familiar and comfortable with using. That’s human nature.

It’s also true that the person with extensive skills will be able to match products to business requirements. For example, explaing the difference between Cisco ACS and ISE takes a fair amount of fundamental knowledge at a product level plus an understanding of how the business operates. Therefore, making sure that a person with strong technology skills is part of the sales targeting plan will reduce the pre-sales cost for Cisco.

Of course, there are always some people will also be one-eyed and bigoted but that’s likely a personality trait than the result of training & discipline.

Are CCIEs, as a whole, happy with that ?

A few years back the CCIE™ program was much more focussed on building strong bonds with CCIE candidates and certified individuals. That was before the CCIE program administration team was absorbed into the Cisco Learning Team. From this time forward, there has been no support, outreach, or partnership with successful exam candidates. All previous privileges have been lost and nothing has replaced them.

It’s a common topic at Cisco Live events – I’ve been to “CCIE Appreciation” events in the last five years and this was a common topic – “what happened to our privileges ? ”

The only outreach that occurs today is a specific event at Cisco Live where John Chambers meets with NetVets and CCIEs and listens to the them talk. And then absolutely nothing gets done about any of the issues raised there.

The EtherealMind View

So if you ask whether I get support and special access to Cisco services, the answer is no. As a reward for the commitment that I have demonstrated to Cisco for studying, learning and mastering their technology and products, and being the target for their sales calls and becoming a gateway/influencers to many millions of dollars sales every single year I get absolutely nothing from Cisco.

That’s why I no longer put my CCIE status/number in emails – why promote a product that does nothing for me ?

I point the blame for this problem at the Cisco Learning Team for not standing up and fighting for resources (money & people) to support this key business resource for Cisco.

I also think that company executives really need to do something about the Cisco Learning team – few people like them, or the leadership of that business unit. The overall attitude is domineering and much like a Hollywood B-grade movie High School Headmaster – bumbling, fascist tosspots and with all kinds of dumbass educational ideas (don’t get me started). They need to learn business skills and the real world isn’t how they like it.

But then, there are lots of other vendors to buy from, so it’s not really a big deal. Use your CCIE study program to learn technology, don’t get caught up in loyalty to Cisco, they simply don’t repay it.

This is a list of the Cisco IOS CLI shortcuts that I need to reference. I really need to practice using the Delete Buffer commands and Ctrl-R Refesh as part of my muscle memory / daily practice.

Cursor Movement Shortcuts

Shortcut

Description

Mnemonic

Ctrl+A

Move cursor to the beginning for the line

Alpha, First letter == beginning

Ctrl+E

Move cursor to the end of the line

E for End

Ctrl+F

Move cursor forward one character

F for Forward

Ctrl+B

Move cursor backward

B for Backward

Esc+F

Moves forward one word

Always forget the escape version

Esc+B

Moves backwards one word

Ditto

Ctrl+P

Previous command

P for Previous – also up arrow

Ctrl+N

Next command

N for Next – also down arrow

Editing Shortcuts

Shortcut

Description

Mnemonic

Ctrl+W

Delete the word to the left from the cursor

W for Word

Ctrl+U

Delete the whole line

??

Ctrl+T

Swap or transpose the current character with the one before it

T for Transpose

Ctrl+K

Erase characters from the cursor to end of the line

??

Ctrl+X

Erase characters from the cursor to beginning of the line

??

Esc+D

Delete from Cursor to end of word

Delete

Removes the character to the right of the cursor

Backspace

Removes the character to the left of the cursor

Up Arrow

Allows you to scroll forward through previous commands

Down Arrow

Allows you to scroll backwards through previous commands

Functional Shortcuts

Shortcut

Description

Mnemonic

Ctrl+L

Reprint the line

L for Line

Ctrl+R

Refresh

R for Repeat – starts a new line, with the same command shown (If the system sends a message to the screen while a command is being entered and your are not using line synchonisation

Tab

Command autocomplete

No Comment

Ctrl+C

Exit. Exit from config mode

Ctrl+Z

Apply the command line and exit from config mode ie. return to privileged EXEC mode.

Ctrl+Shift+6 (X)

CTRL-SHIFT-6 is one action, the X is the second action

Less Common Shortcuts

Shortcut

Description

Mnemonic

Esc, C

Makes the letter at the cursor uppercase.

C for Capital

Esc, L

Changes the word at the cursor to lowercase

L for Lower

Esc, U

Makes letters from the cursor to the end of the word uppercase.

U for Uppercase

Using the Delete Buffer

Shortcut

Description

Mnemonic

The buffer stores the last ten items that have been deleted using Ctrl-K, Ctrl-U, or Ctrl-X

Ctrl-Y

Paste the most recent entry in the delete buffer

Y for “Yank” as in Yank from buffer

Esc-Y

Paste the Previous entry in the history buffer

Y for “Yank” as in Yank from buffer

Note that the delete buffer is very useful for times when you have created complex and difficult names in IOS. If you use a naming convention for QoS CLI such as 100M-5Mpri-15mbAF21 then this is a hugely useful feature for show and configuration commands.

I donít have the answer but in this not so brief post I can show you how long it took me and tell you a little about my journey.

Donít read any further if your are looking for technical stuff in this post. If you are studying for some exams then it might help you to focus your efforts so read on.

How many training courses are required to achieve CCIE?

Before reading any further think about how many training courses it will take you to reach your next certification level? Push that number on your stack.

A long long time ago

Back in the olden days working on my Windows 95 laptop in a cubical laid out office, looking pretty dated in the millennium, probably the height of design in the 90ís I would sit studying for MSCE and working on Microsoft NT4 designs for customer across the UK. I would spend my life going from the office onto the motorways of Britain from customer to customer.

There was a guy who sat directly behind me back to back and he was always in the office. So chatting one day I ask what he was working on and where was it based. To my surprise he was working on a global network out of New York. ìBut you are always in the office!î I puzzled. Then he describes how he dials into the customers world wide network and the main data centre was in New York. I thought this was amazing. He says to me ìDo you want to learn about networkingî. and I said ìyesî. and that was the start of my Journey into the unknown.

CCNA ñ Sybex was my friend

I am guessing this was around July 1999, so through the company I was allowed to purchase my first networking book. I believe it was a Sybex CCNA study book. At this point I know the guy had been to Brussels twice to sit a big exam, and the second time he was successful. I also remember one of his colleagues coming back having failed and said to his manager. ìIt was tough I just couldnít type fast enoughî. The manager replied, ìGo and book yourself on a secretarial course then!î. I am thinking that sounds tough and I am struggling taking in information to go and sit my CCNA exam.

CCNP

November 1999 I passed CCNA and I thought that was me done, the guy then says ìRight now you need to do CCNPî; ìWhat there more ?î. I was still enjoying it so I got the company to pay for more books, I canít fully remember but sure it was Sybex that was the main source and there was little or no Internet resources at the time.

So I plodded on the looking back it must have been the following to make up CCNP.

CLSC ñ Cisco Lan Switching

ACRC ñ Advanced Cisco Router configuration

CIT ñ Cisco Internetwork Troubleshooting

CMTD ñ Remote access

During this period I did have access to some devices, I believe it was 3 x 2600 routers, possibly only 2 but it was a long time ago.

I had CCNP by May 2000.I was delighted at this and was probably the only CCNP in the Microsoft Practice in Digital.

I had no training courses and no practical experience at all. I read books, played with my routers and ask my mentor question. I could never be let loose on a real network unsupervised.

CCIE

Now my mentor managed to convince me to go all the way, and by now I knew more about the prestige of being a CCIE and heard things about retainers and big salaries. So with help from my mentor my upper management committed to continue to pay for books and would pay for the written exam.

I continued to study and done some other exams along the way and eventually got around to the written in August 2000. This appeared to be a big deal among my mentors networking peers to me it was one step closer to the LAB. I think because I was not in networking I had no realisation of what taking CCIE lab really meant. Still no formal training course.

Now it wasnít that hard to convince my management to sign up to pay for the LAB and expenses, to be fair I am not sure how serious they were taking me, after all I still had no practical experience. However taking advice from my mentor I had no chance without attending a boot camp, so I needed the company to pay for a two week camp in Bracknell or thereabouts, I think it was tutored by Kevin ????? I cant remember his name. So after arm twisting they committed to it and I started to really thorough myself into my studies.

I now has access to a remote lab with 5 routers, I would dial into Digital over 56k modem and access the lab remotely every night more or less (BK ñ before kids).

Before I knew it I had my Lab scheduled for just two weeks after my bootcamp.

Oh Boy! Did I feel like the odd one out when I arrived at the boot camp, all these guys who had been working in network for years, some had even been to the lab. ìWhat do you do?î they would ask. ìI work as a Microsoft consultantî , I got looks like I was as smouldering pile of poo.

I remember the first few days were a nightmare, I could hardly manage to telnet around the routers properly because I was so used to my fixed lab config and not use to jumping around networks. Two week passed and that was it, nothing else to do but go for the LAB.

The lab was a blur (two day lab in those days), in the morning I could not get my frame-relay to work, so I battered through and put on all the config, I had about 30 minute before lunch and I am sure at that time if I did not have end to end connectivity it was a fail and sent home. I went to my rack and examined the FR serial connection I believed to be the issue, I unplugged the connector, rotated it 180 degrees and plugged it back in. I when back to my console and sure enough IP was coming up. phewÖ At lunch I said to a proctor about the issues and they said, I should have ask them about it as it wasnít suppose to be like that. I was to scared to ask in case I got marked down.

At the end of day one I think there were 10 people left out of a starting 20 down to 4 for troubleshooting. I could not believe it when I got called back in and they said I had passed, I was euphoric, when I got back to the airport I bought the biggest cigars I could find and had a smoke, which was weird since I didnít smoke.

So from 0 to CCIE November 1999 to July 2001 (20 Months and never touching a real network)

1 Training Course

1 Mentor

1 Mentor

As you can see I can still fail exams, but thatís a direct result of the effort I put in.

I write this to try and give encouragement that it is possible to learn lots of stuff without going on a training course, indeed I would encourage people challenge themselves to learn without being taught, this way, in my opinion leads you away from learning not just to pass an exam but to really learn the subject matter.

I now need to set my sights on my next CCIE, although I canít decide between voice or SP.